JERUSALEM: Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Sunday that Israel was prepared to resume fighting against Hamas after the Palestinian group accused it of endangering a five-week-old Gaza truce by suspending prisoner releases.
The first phase of the truce, which has largely halted more than 15 months of devastating war in the Gaza Strip, is due to expire in early March, and details of a planned subsequent phase have not been agreed.
With tensions again surging over the deal, Israel on Sunday announced an expansion of military operations against militants in the occupied West Bank, a separate Palestinian territory where violence has soared throughout the Gaza war.
Netanyahu, speaking at a military ceremony a day after Israel halted the release of hundreds of Palestinian prisoners in exchange for six hostages freed from Gaza, vowed to achieve the war’s objectives in negotiations “or by other means”.
“We are prepared to resume intense fighting at any moment,“ he said.
Since the ceasefire began on January 19, Gaza militants have released 25 living Israeli hostages in staged ceremonies, often flanked by masked gunmen and forced to speak.
After six were freed on Saturday, Israel put off the planned release of more than 600 Palestinians, citing what Netanyahu called “humiliating ceremonies” in Gaza.
The International Committee of the Red Cross, which has facilitated the hostage-prisoner exchanges, has previously appealed to “all parties” for the swaps to be carried out in a “dignified and private” manner.
Senior Hamas official Bassem Naim said postponing the release exposes “the entire agreement to grave danger”.
Naim called on the truce mediators, “especially the Americans”, to pressure Israel “to implement the agreement as it is and immediately release our prisoners”.
Both sides have accused each other of violations during the ceasefire but it has so far held.
- 'Prevent return' -
Israel vowed to destroy Hamas after its October 7, 2023 attack, and has made bringing back all hostages seized that day part of its war objectives.
The attack that triggered the war resulted in the deaths of more than 1,200 people, and Israel's retaliation killed more than 48,000 in Gaza, according to figures from both sides.
Netanyahu on Sunday said that “we have eliminated most of Hamas’s organised forces, but let there be no doubt -- we will complete the war’s objectives entirely -- whether through negotiation or by other means.”
A military statement later on Sunday said “it was decided to increase the operational readiness in the area surrounding the Gaza Strip”.
US President Donald Trump’s envoy Steve Witkoff said he was headed to the Middle East this week to “get an extension of phase one” of the truce.
“We’re hopeful that we have the proper time... to begin phase two, and finish it off and get more hostages released,“ Witkoff told CNN.
Trump has floated the idea of a US takeover of war-ravaged Gaza under which its Palestinian inhabitants would move elsewhere, triggering widespread criticism.
Alongside the Gaza war -- which displaced almost the entire population of 2.4 million -- Israel has intensified its military operations in the West Bank.
According to UN and Israeli figures, 40,000 Palestinians have been displaced from refugee camps in the northern West Bank since the start of a major Israeli offensive last month.
The military said a tank division will be sent into Jenin, the first such deployment to the West Bank in 20 years.
Defence Minister Israel Katz said he has told troops “to prepare for a prolonged presence in the cleared camps for the coming year and to prevent the return of residents and the resurgence of terrorism”.
- 'Parading bodies' -
Michael Horowitz, head of intelligence for Le Beck risk management consultancy, said the deployment of tanks in the West Bank comes at a “very sensitive time for the ceasefire” in Gaza.
He noted that Netanyahu, under domestic pressure over his handling of the war, could face the choice of either returning to fighting or his far-right coalition government potentially collapsing.
In the West Bank as well as in Gaza, families of Palestinian prisoners had waited with uncertainty into the night on Saturday, hoping for their release.
The six Israelis freed Saturday were the last group of living hostages set for release under the truce's first phase.
The first transfer of dead hostages under the truce earlier this week sparked anger in Israel when the remains of captive Shiri Bibas were not initially returned, promoting Hamas to admit a possible “mix-up of bodies” and finally hand over hers.
UN human rights chief Volker Turk condemned the “parading of bodies” during a ceremony in which coffins, with pictures of the dead attached, were displayed on a slogan-bedecked stage.
